In the days since President Joe Biden warned that the United States' relations with Israel could be harmed over the large-scale killing of Palestinian civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opened a series of new border crossings to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.
But at the same time, Israel has been ramping up its campaign to disrupt and dismantle the United Nations agency leading the humanitarian response in Gaza, fueling concerns by senior U.N. officials that the effort is undermining international efforts to halt suffering and famine in the Strip.
On April 1, Israel refused a request by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, to evacuate injured Palestinians and assess the damage at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City following the latest Israeli raid, according to a copy of the email denial reviewed by Devex. The block on safe passage to UNRWA — which was part of a scheduled convoy to the north led by the World Health Organization — prompted the U.N. health agency to cancel its plans to visit al-Shifa.